TO: CITY COUNCIL
FROM: ADAM PIRRIE, CITY MANAGER
DATE: MARCH 12, 2024
Reviewed by:
City Manager: AP
SUBJECT:
Title
PROVIDE DIRECTION ON THE 2024-26 CITY COUNCIL OBJECTIVES (FUNDING SOURCES: VARIOUS)
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SUMMARY
In November 2023, the City began a public engagement campaign to gather community feedback on City Council Priorities. The City conducted a community survey that asked participants for their opinions on City programs and services, priorities for the City Council, and suggestions for improving City operations and programs. Additionally, the City hired Patrick Ibarra of the Mejorando Group to facilitate three community focus group meetings (held in December 2023 and January 2024) and a City Council Priorities Workshop, which was held on January 27, 2024.
At the workshop, the City Council reaffirmed the seven existing priorities, which had been formally approved in April 2022. The City Council also requested additional information on several work plan items or “objectives” that it would like to further consider, including:
• Moving forward with evaluating our Urban Forest Master Plan, policies/procedures, Municipal Code, and General Plan to ensure consistency (in lieu of a Private Tree Ordinance);
• Providing direction on tenant protections/additional programming; and
• Exploring potential options to relinquish ownership of the Blaisdell Ranch Preserve to the Blaisdell Ranch Homeowners Association.
The purpose of this report is for staff to receive direction on these potential work plan objectives. The priorities and objectives ultimately approved by the City Council will inform the budget development process for 2024-26 (July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026).
RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Action
Staff recommends the City Council provide direction regarding potential work plan objectives for the City’s 2024-26 budget.
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ALTERNATIVE TO RECOMMENDATION
In addition to the staff recommendation, there is the following alternative:
• Request additional information.
FINANCIAL REVIEW
The process of updating City Council Priorities and Objectives is intended to inform the development of the City’s 2024-26 Operating and Capital Improvement Program Budget. In many cases, objectives identified by the City Council may require the allocation of funding and/or resources through the budget development process. Accordingly, the financial impacts related to the 2024-26 Council Priorities and Objectives will be accounted for in the City’s 2024-26 Budget, which will be presented to the City Council for its consideration at a later date.
The cost to prepare this report is estimated at $1,000 and is included in the operating budget of the Administrative Services Department.
ANALYSIS
2024-26 Priorities Setting Process
In November 2023, the City began a public engagement campaign to gather community feedback on City Council Priorities. The City hired Patrick Ibarra of the Mejorando Group to facilitate three community focus group meetings and a City Council Priorities Workshop. Two of the focus groups (both virtual) were held in December 2023 and the remaining focus group (in-person at the Hughes Center) was held on January 25, 2024. The workshop was held on January 27, 2024. All focus groups and the workshop were open to the public.
The City also opened a community survey on November 16, 2023 that asked participants for their opinions on City programs and services, priorities for the City Council, and suggestions for improving City operations and programs. The survey closed on December 15, 2023, and at the close of the survey, 814 participants had completed the survey. Additionally, a comment box was added to the City’s website so that interested parties could continue to provide feedback.
In preparation for the January 27, 2024 City Council Priorities Workshop, staff created a comprehensive report detailing the public input process. Contained in the report were the results of the focus group meetings and survey. The report was included in the Priorities Workshop agenda and was posted on the City’s website on January 22, 2024.
At the workshop, City Manager Adam Pirrie provided an update on the City Council Priorities and 2022-24 Objectives. After Mr. Pirrie’s update, Mr. Ibarra led the City Council through a series of exercises to gather their opinions on leadership, the benefits of good governance, the trends impacting government organizations, and the lasting impacts they wished to leave on the community. Following discussion on the exercises, the City Council received public comment. During the second part of the workshop, the City Council discussed its “priorities,” which are intended to represent long-term, conceptual principles, and provided preliminary direction on “objectives,” which represent work plan items for staff to implement in the 2024-26 budget.
The City Council discussed and affirmed the following priorities:
• Preserve Our Natural, Cultural and Historic Resources
• Maintain Financial Stability
• Invest in the Maintenance and Improvement of Our Infrastructure
• Ensure the Safety of Our Community Through Community-Based Policing and Emergency Preparedness
• Increase Livability in Our Neighborhoods and Expand Opportunities for Our Businesses
• Promote Community Engagement Through Transparency and Communication
• Develop Anti-Racist and Anti-Discrimination Policies and Plan to Achieve Community and Organizational Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The 2024-26 objectives that were discussed by the City Council included a variety of specific projects, program enhancements, and policy recommendations. The City Council specifically requested additional information on several potential objectives that it would like to further consider, including: (1) Moving forward with evaluating our Urban Forest Master Plan, policies/procedures, Municipal Code, and General Plan to ensure consistency (in lieu of a Private Tree Ordinance), (2) Providing direction on tenant protections/additional programming, and (3) Exploring potential options to relinquish ownership of the Blaisdell Ranch Preserve to the Blaisdell Ranch Homeowners Association. The purpose of this report is for staff to receive direction on these potential work plan objectives.
Private Tree Ordinance
As part of the 2022-24 priorities setting process, the City Council identified the following work plan objective: “Evaluate feasibility of policies and procedures for the protection of private trees.” Over the past two years, several residents have expressed interest in the addition of a “Private Tree Ordinance,” which would create additional protections and regulations pertaining to privately owned trees in Claremont.
As staff shared during the workshop, it is estimated that the first-year costs associated with the development of a Private Tree Ordinance would be approximately $300,000 (including one-time and ongoing costs, such as a consultant to draft the ordinance and the addition of a staff Arborist to enforce the ordinance). Ongoing costs for subsequent years would include the Arborist position, as well as overhead costs (i.e., supplies and services). In response to this, the City Council had indicated that a Private Tree Ordinance (and additional staffing that would be required for such) should not be pursued at this time, but that staff should instead focus on evaluating the City’s Urban Forest Master Plan, policies/procedures, the Claremont Municipal Code (CMC), and the General Plan to ensure consistency.
Staff is seeking affirmation from the City Council that this is the direction that should be reflected in the 2024-26 City Council Priorities and Objectives as well as the 2024-26 Operating and Capital Improvement Program Budget.
Tenant Protections/Programming
Claremont Temporary Housing Stabilization and Relocation Program/ Homebuyer Assistance Programming
On April 25, 2023, the City Council voted to allocate $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to fund the Claremont Temporary Housing Stabilization and Relocation Program. Since the program’s inception, rental assistance has been provided to 138 Claremont households. At the time of this report, $329,284 has been allocated for the first program cycle (July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024), with several additional applications in the process of being reviewed.
Due to the high demand for rental assistance as evident in the first cycle of the Program, the total funding of $1 million may be exhausted in less than three years. The City Council could consider appropriating additional funding to extend the program. A potential source of funding could be $680,000 of the $3.4 million in proceeds from the sale of the 451 W. Arrow Highway property, representing a twenty percent “set-aside” for affordable housing. Should the City Council allocate this additional funding, the program would be able to support additional households within the three-year program cycle and/or have the potential to extend the program beyond its current June 30, 2026 sunset date. This program would remain temporary in nature unless the City Council directs otherwise. If additional funding is not allocated, it is possible that the program will run out of funding prior to its June 30, 2026 sunset date.
Due to the program’s success, significant staffing resources have been required to review applications, meet with applicants, and process payments. While staff is able to maintain the current program without the need for additional staff positions, staff does not have the capacity to take on additional programming, such as a Homebuyer Assistance Program. Further, there are home ownership assistance programs available through Los Angeles County and the State of California.
Rental Registry/Anti-Harassment Ordinance
The City of Claremont currently does not have a “Housing Division” or its own “Housing Authority.” Further, the City does not have any current staff positions that would be considered “housing program experts.” As such, if the City Council wanted to pursue additional tenant protection programming, such as a rental registry or an Anti-Harassment Ordinance, the City would need to create a new department or division with associated staffing (including positions that would be brand new to the City) who would be dedicated to managing and addressing issues related to tenant protections. Other cities with rental registries and/or Anti-Harassment Ordinances have dedicated staff who are responsible for collecting and managing rental/harassment data and information, as well as enforcement.
There are substantial start-up costs and staff management/administration costs associated with rental registries alone - for example, the City of Monterey estimated $125,000 for start-up costs and $400,000 annually for staff management. After the rental registry data collection begins, the City would need to assess whether or not there is a need for additional or fewer staff members to address the needs of Claremont tenants (based on the information that is gleaned from the registry data). Over the past several months, there has been some discussion regarding the use of a database such as CoStar to collect information on Claremont’s rental market. Staff met with a representative from CoStar who confirmed that their database focuses on commercial real estate and is not designed to replace a comprehensive rental registry. While staff may be able to extract some useful data from CoStar, staff would not have access to information on residential tenants.
In June 2023, at the direction of City Council, staff invited community stakeholders to meet and discuss the potential to pursue an Anti-Harassment Ordinance. The following representatives participated in said meeting:
• Lydia Hernandez on behalf of Claremont Tenants United
• Allison Henry on behalf of SGV Tenant Alliance
• Zach Courser on behalf of Housing Claremont
• Bill Ruh on behalf of Citrus Valley Association of Realtors
• Matt Buck on behalf of the California Apartment Association
• Max Sherman on behalf of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles
• Katie Wand, Assistant to the City Manager
• Alisha Patterson, City Attorney
While the intent of the meeting was to discuss language options and to work toward recommended language that could be shared with the City Council, it was clear that a lot more work needed to be done before an ordinance could be presented to the City Council. There was discussion surrounding the use of mediation services (in lieu of an Anti-Harassment Ordinance); the potential need to survey Claremont’s “rental housing” community (i.e., reaching out to housing providers and tenants throughout Claremont for feedback to determine local needs); and the need to conduct more research on other cities’ Anti-Harassment Ordinance and associated enforcement processes/staffing structures.
Given that the City does not currently have the staff capacity, nor does the City have any “expert” housing program staff positions to dedicate to this large effort, staff does not recommend pursuing a rental registry and/or an Anti-Harassment Ordinance. Should the City Council wish to pursue one or both of these programs, and/or a Homebuyers Assistance Program as referenced in the previous section, staff would recommend hiring a consultant to conduct a feasibility study regarding the creation of a City Housing Division. If the City Council provides such direction, staff would need to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) and present an item to the City Council at a later date to consider approving a contract with a qualified consultant.
Blaisdell Ranch Preserve
The City Council previously expressed interest in considering the relinquishment of the Blaisdell Ranch Preserve to the Blaisdell Ranch Homeowners Association (HOA). The City currently holds an easement over the property that allows the public to access the Preserve. The Police Department regularly receives calls from residents who live near the Preserve regarding park usage. Residents usually request Police Department responses to address “unpermitted gatherings” (i.e. groups utilizing the Preserve for prom/family photos) and commercial activity (i.e. commercial photography sessions). Staff resources are also used for traffic control to manage use of the Preserve when large gatherings are anticipated (i.e. prom and homecoming dances for local high schools).
Presently, the City is partially responsible for maintaining the Preserve, and holds an easement over the property providing for the public’s use of the Preserve. Possible steps involved in “privatizing” the Preserve may include, but may not be limited to:
• Conduct research to confirm that the City did not use restricted funding for park improvements.
• Amend the underlying development approvals, all of which appear to have specified that the Blaisdell Ranch Preserve would be open to the public. This could require a noticed public hearing process before the Planning Commission and City Council. This could trigger an environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The development approvals were originally approved via Negative Declaration. Review and amend the 1983 Conditional Use Permit, the 1983 Tentative Tract Map, and/or the 1984 Final Tract Map.
• Amend the 1985 Easement and Maintenance Agreement between the City and the HOA. This would require both City Council and HOA approval.
• Review and approve HOA amendments to the 1997 Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs). Staff would need to locate this document and determine what formal approval(s) would be required. Amend the 2006 Letter Agreement for Blaisdell Ranch Preserve. This would require both City Council and HOA approval.
• Amend the City’s General Plan to reflect that Blaisdell Preserve is no longer one of the City’s public parks or open spaces.
• Potential need to replace loss of public parkland.
As illustrated in the possible steps described above, “privatizing” Blaisdell Ranch Preserve would be a substantial undertaking that would likely have a significant impact on staff time and resources. Based on this information, staff is seeking direction from the City Council to determine whether this project is something that the City Council would like to pursue.
Should the City Council direct staff to add this consideration as a work plan item for 2024-26, staff will work with the City Attorney to determine the next steps in possible negotiations between the City and the HOA, and will include funding or the allocation of resources in the 2024-26 budget to achieve this objective.
RELATIONSHIP TO CITY PLANNING DOCUMENTS
Staff has evaluated the agenda item in relationship to the City’s strategic and visioning documents and finds that it applies to the following City Planning Documents: Council Priorities, Sustainability Plan, Economic Sustainability Plan, General Plan, and the Youth and Family Master Plan.
CEQA REVIEW
This item is not subject to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
PUBLIC NOTICE PROCESS
The agenda and staff report for this item have been posted on the City website and distributed to interested parties. If you desire a copy, please contact the City Clerk’s Office.
Submitted by: Prepared by:
Adam Pirrie Katie Wand
City Manager Assistant to the City Manager